Toronto subway-sex couple the latest to find ecs-TTC in public

A couple was arrested Sunday night for having sex on a TTC subway train in Toronto.

Photograph by: Aaron Lynett/National Post

TORONTO — Love knows no bounds — and few boundaries, as a drunken couple showed this week on a Toronto subway car.

The young man and woman, who were arrested Sunday, in an anticlimactic end to their hot-and-heavy encounter, are in fact just the latest lovers to run afoul of authorities in a high-profile moment, both in Canada and around the world.

Brad Ross, a spokesman for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), said the couple was "seen by other passengers engaged in intercourse on the train."

Making no attempts to be discreet, the couple soon prompted a fellow passenger to press the subway's yellow emergency strip, which brought the train to a stop at Spadina Station. It took 14 minutes for police to arrive.

In the meantime, as trains all along the line snarled to a halt, the couple staggered onto the platform to continue. The final seconds of their romantic entanglement were captured in a cellphone video which was posted online, but quickly removed as it violated YouTube's Terms of Service. The face of the woman was not shown, although the man, whose pants are around his ankles, appears to be in his 20s.

The Criminal Code of Canada states it's illegal to have sex in a "public place," which is defined as "any place to which the public has access as a right or by invitation."

Anyone receiving a summary conviction in Federal Court could face a fine of $2,000, imprisonment for six months or both.

Other countries take different approaches.

In 2008, two Britons were accused of having sex on a Dubai beach and sentenced to three months in jail followed by deportation.

Vince Acors, 34, and Michelle Palmer, 37, were also fined 1,000 dirhams ($272) each. They had pleaded not guilty to charges of having sex in public and committing an indecent act in public, but admitted to an alcohol-related offence.

That same year, a French couple took their love life to the Canadian war memorial at Vimy Ridge.

The two made a video of "sex acts" performed at the historic site and posted them to an online pornographic forum, where authorities took note. They were fined 1,000 euros for their indiscretion, and given a four-month suspended jail term.

They were also ordered to pay a dollar in symbolic damages to the Canadian government.

There are other places, however, where lovers with a flair for exhibitionism can more safely take their recreational romance.

Puttenham, England, about an hour's drive from London, has become famous as a good place to go "dogging" — that is, to have sex in public, sometimes with partners you have just met online, so that others can watch.

So popular are the woodsy fields of the small hamlet as a spot for gay sex (mostly during the day) and heterosexual sex (mostly at night) that the police have designated it a "public sex environment."

In Amsterdam, Dutch council officials decided in 2008 to permit gay sex in public areas, including the city's Vondelpark rose garden, which a city alderman said has become famous as a trysting spot for homosexuals.

"Why should we try to impose something that is actually impossible to impose, which also causes little bother for others and for a certain group actually means much pleasure?" Paul van Grieken told the Daily Telegraph.

Here in Canada, a 2007 poll found that 78 per cent of British Columbians have done it in the great outdoors.

Back in Toronto, Ross said after arresting the couple and charging them with engaging in a lewd act, police brought them to hospital because "they both appeared to be quite intoxicated."

Subway sex has likely happened before, said Ross, but never on his watch.

"I've never seen a report like this before, but that just means that nobody's been caught," he said.

In a series of public posts to the BlogTO website this week, other riders claimed to have witnessed oral sex on the Toronto subway. On the GO Train, there are rumours of a "Corridor Club" where commuters have sex in train bathrooms.

"My advice to others who wish to engage in public displays of affection of this nature is to get a room," said Ross.

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